Changing Waitlist Settings When People Are Already Waiting

Automatic Waitlists are a Boost feature. This guide is about one thing that trips people up: what happens to the people already on your waitlist when you switch the automatic queue on or off, or change how it fills spots.

First, the word "automatic," because it does two different jobs here. The automatic queue fills open spots on its own: once someone is in the queue, they get invited or assigned the next opening with no work from you. What it does not do is reach back and pull in the people who were already waiting before you turned it on. That is not a dead end, though: a single button moves those earlier people in whenever you decide to. So nothing happens behind your back, and nothing is out of your reach.

That is why you will see both "they are not moved automatically" and "here is how to move them" below. They are not a contradiction: the queue never grabs your existing waitlist on its own, but you can hand it over in one click.

Where these settings live

Go to your Dashboard, find the form, and click its Options button. Scroll to the Waitlist area. Under the Automatic Waitlists heading you will find the General Waitlist switch (that is the one that turns the automatic queue on), and when it is on, an Invite Mode / Auto-Fill Mode choice appears below it.

Moving people already on your waitlist into the queue

The moment you turn the General Waitlist switch on for a form that already has people waiting, a yellow Heads up note appears right below the switch. If there is anyone to move, that note contains a Move them into the queue button. That button is the whole fix: click it, review who would move, and confirm.

Before you confirm, it shows you exactly who would move and the date each person signed up. If you go ahead, everyone is added in the order they originally joined, so whoever has been waiting longest is first in line. Running it twice is harmless: anyone already in the queue is skipped.

Two things worth knowing before you click:

• Check the signups are still relevant. If your form's dates or options have changed since those people joined, they may be waiting for something that no longer exists. That is the main reason to skip this.
• If spots are open right now, people will be contacted shortly. Moving someone into the queue does not email them by itself, but the queue is checked regularly for open spots. Anyone who reaches the front while a spot is free will be invited or assigned it, depending on your mode.

Don't see the button? The yellow note only appears after you actually change a waitlist setting, and the button inside it only appears when there is someone to move. If your form is already set up the way you want, flip the General Waitlist switch off and back on to bring the note back up.

What happens when you change each setting

Turning the General Waitlist (automatic queue) on

From this point on, everyone who joins flows into the queue and open spots start filling on their own. The people who were already waiting are the exception: they are not pulled in on their own. They stay on your waitlist, where you can still see and contact them, until you move them in with the button above. Until you do, an open spot will not be filled from that earlier group: it simply becomes available again, and the next person to visit your form can take it.

Turning the General Waitlist off

People in the queue stay on your waitlist and keep their place. Open spots simply stop being filled automatically, and you go back to managing the waitlist yourself.

Switching between Invite Mode and Auto-Fill Mode

Everyone already in the queue stays in the queue, in the same order. What changes is what happens the next time a spot opens:

• Invite Mode: the next person is emailed and has a set window (12 hours) to claim the spot. If they skip it or do not reply, the next person is offered it.
• Auto-Fill Mode: the next person is assigned the spot immediately and told by email. No claiming step.

Anyone who already has a live invitation under Invite Mode keeps it. The new mode applies from the next opening onward.

Why moving them is a button instead of happening on its own

We could pull everyone who was already waiting into the queue the instant you flip the switch. We don't, on purpose. Joining the queue is not just a reorder: depending on the mode, it either emails someone an invitation or assigns them a confirmed spot outright. Doing that to people who signed up weeks or months ago, possibly for dates or options that have changed since, could fire off a wave of emails about spots they don't remember asking for. So we hand you the button and let you decide who moves and when.

A quick way to check what is in your queue

On the form's card in your Dashboard, click Responses and look at the Waitlist section. That shows everyone waiting. If you turned the automatic queue on partway through collecting signups and have not used the button, the people listed from before that point are the ones the automation will not act on.